62 Facts About Frank Gehry

Frank Owen Gehry is a Canadian-American architect and designer.

Frank Gehry's works are considered among the most important of contemporary architecture in the 2010 World Architecture Survey, leading Vanity Fair to call him "the most important architect of our age".

Frank Gehry is known for his postmodern designs and use of bold, unconventional forms and materials.

Frank Gehry has been awarded the National Medal of Arts and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in the United States.

Frank Gehry's influence extends beyond architecture; he has designed furniture, jewelry, and liquor bottles.

Frank Gehry spent time drawing with his father, and his mother introduced him to the world of art.

Frank Gehry was given the Hebrew name "Ephraim" by his grandfather, but used it only at his bar mitzvah.

In 1954, Frank Gehry changed his surname from Goldberg to Frank Gehry, after his then-wife Anita expressed concern about antisemitism.

In 1947, Frank Gehry's family immigrated to the United States, settling in California.

Frank Gehry got a job driving a delivery truck and studied at Los Angeles City College.

Frank Gehry went on to graduate from the University of Southern California's School of Architecture in 1954, where his professors included William Pereira.

Frank Gehry then spent time away from architecture in numerous other jobs, including service in the United States Army.

Frank Gehry had always expressed an socialist philosophy for architecture, something that was influenced by political views as he expressed a more leftist attitude to the world.

Frank Gehry ultimately dropped out of his graduate program at Harvard University to start a furniture manufacturing company Easy Edges, which specialised in creating pieces with cardboard.

Frank Gehry returned to Los Angeles to work for Victor Gruen Associates, with whom he had apprenticed while at USC.

In 1961, Frank Gehry moved to Paris, where he worked for architect Andre Remondet.

Frank Gehry's buildings are juxtaposed collages of spaces and materials that make users appreciative of both the theatre and the back-stage, simultaneously revealed.

Frank Gehry began receiving larger national and international commissions, including his first European commission, the Vitra International Furniture Manufacturing Facility and Design Museum in Germany, completed in 1989.

Since then, Frank Gehry has regularly won major commissions and established himself as one of the world's most notable architects.

Frank Gehry's best-received works include several concert halls for classical music.

In October 2013, Frank Gehry was appointed joint architect with Foster + Partners to design the High Street phase of the development of Battersea Power Station in London, Frank Gehry's first project there.

Some stalled projects have recently shown progress: After many years and a dismissal, Gehry was recently reinstated as architect for the Grand Avenue Project in Los Angeles, and though his controversial design of the National Dwight D Eisenhower Memorial in Washington, DC has had numerous delays during the approval process with the United States Congress, it was finally approved in 2014 with a modified design.

In 2014, two significant, long-awaited museums designed by Frank Gehry opened: the Biomuseo, a biodiversity museum in Panama City, Panama; and the Fondation Louis Vuitton, a modern art museum in the Bois de Boulogne park in Paris, France.

Also in 2014, Frank Gehry was commissioned by River LA, a nonprofit group founded by the city of Los Angeles in 2009 to coordinate river policy, to devise a wide-ranging new plan for the river.

Frank Gehry said he would not design a building like the "crumpled paper bag" again.

Frank Gehry told the French newspaper La Croix in November 2016 that President of France Francois Hollande had assured him he could relocate to France if Donald Trump was elected President of the United States.

For Frank Gehry, architecture is not just about creating buildings but about crafting spaces that inspire and challenge societal norms.

The museum's dramatic curves and shimmering titanium panels are defining features of Frank Gehry's style, emphasizing movement and fluidity.

Frank Gehry has been praised for listening closely to clients and translating their needs into visionary designs.

In January 2011, Frank Gehry joined the University of Southern California faculty, as the Judge Widney Professor of Architecture.

Frank Gehry has since continued in this role at his alma mater.

Frank Gehry has held teaching positions at Harvard University, the University of California at Los Angeles, the University of Toronto, Columbia University, the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, and at Yale University, where he still teaches as of 2017.

In February 2017, MasterClass announced an online architecture course taught by Frank Gehry that was released that July.

Frank Gehry has been involved in exhibition designs at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art dating back to the 1960s.

In 1965, Frank Gehry designed the exhibition display for the "Art Treasures of Japan" exhibition at the LACMA.

The subsequent year, Frank Gehry designed the exhibition for "Seventeen Artists in the '60s" at the LACMA, followed soon after by the "German Expressionist Sculpture Exhibition" in 1983.

Frank Gehry was asked to design an exhibition on the work of Alexander Calder at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art's Resnick Pavilion, again invited by the museum's curator Stephanie Barron.

In 1983, Frank Gehry created the stage design for Lucinda Childs' dance Available Light, set to music by John Adams.

In 2003, Frank Gehry designed the set for the American premiere of Janacek's opera Osud at the Frank Gehry-designed Fisher Center at Bard College.

In 2012, Frank Gehry designed the set for the Los Angeles Philharmonic's opera production of Don Giovanni, performed at the Walt Disney Concert Hall.

In 2004, Frank Gehry designed the official trophy for the World Cup of Hockey.

Frank Gehry redesigned the trophy for the next tournament in 2016.

Frank Gehry has collaborated with American furniture manufacturer Emeco on designs such as the 2004 "Superlight" chair.

In 2014, Frank Gehry was one of the six "iconoclasts" selected by French fashion house Louis Vuitton to design a piece using their iconic monogram pattern as part of their "Celebrating Monogram" campaign.

In 2020, Frank Gehry designed a limited edition bottle of Hennessy cognac.

Frank Gehry's firm spun off another firm called Gehry Technologies that was established in 2002.

In 2005, Frank Gehry Technologies began a partnership with Dassault Systemes to bring innovations from the aerospace and manufacturing world to AEC and developed Digital Project software, as well as GTeam software.

In 2014, Frank Gehry Technologies was acquired by software company Trimble Navigation.

Frank Gehry began a hockey league, FOG, in his office, though he no longer plays with them.

Frank Gehry is a member of the California Yacht Club in Marina Del Rey, and enjoys sailing with his fiberglass-hulled yacht, Foggy.

In 2014, Frank Gehry co-founded Turnaround Arts: California, a 501 nonprofit that expands access to the arts in under-resourced public elementary and middle schools across California.

Frank Gehry serves on the leadership council of the New York Stem Cell Foundation.

The Youth Orchestra Los Angeles, which is an educational center and performance space that provides free instruments, music training, and academic support to students from disadvantaged neighborhoods, was designed pro-bono by Frank Gehry and was completed in 2021.

Frank Gehry voiced himself in a 2005 episode of The Simpsons, "The Seven-Beer Snitch", where he designs a concert hall for the fictional city of Springfield.

Frank Gehry has since said he regrets the appearance, as it included a joke about his design technique that has led people to misunderstand his architectural process.

In 2006, filmmaker Sydney Pollack made a documentary about Gehry's work, Sketches of Frank Gehry, which followed Gehry over five years and painted a positive portrait of his character; it was well-received critically.

In October 2014, the first major European exhibition of Frank Gehry's work debuted at the Centre Pompidou in Paris.

Frank Gehry participated in the 1980 Venice Biennale's La Strada Novissima installation.

Frank Gehry contributed to the 1985 Venice Biennale with an installation and performance named Il Corso del Coltello, in collaboration with Claes Oldenburg.

Frank Gehry's projects were featured in the 1996 event, and contributed to the 2008 event with the installation Ungapatchket.

Frank Gehry was elected to the College of Fellows of the American Institute of Architects in 1974, and he has received many national, regional and local AIA awards.

Frank Gehry is a senior fellow of the Design Futures Council and serves on the steering committee of the Aga Khan Award for Architecture.